Disney Dust Academy
by disneydust
Summary: This story is based on many Disney characters. Alice and Wendy, best friends, have just moved from England to America and are both about to attend Disney Dust Academy, a school for the magically talented. Meanwhile Ariel suffers with the fact that once she turns sixteen, she has to decide whether to be mermaid or human. And then there's Peter Pan, the boy who changes everything...
1. Silence Before the Storm

Alice shuddered, rubbing her chilly arms. Though it was technically still summer, the wind was whipping her face and freezing her solid, so Alice wrapped her wooly red trench coat tighter around herself and kept walking. From under the warm, wooly hood the only glimpse that you could catch of her were the tips of her golden eye lashes and her ruby red lips. The rest of her frame was a silhouette against the stormy gray sky.

As Alice's eyes scanned her surroundings she dashed across the shoreline, specks of sand flying under her feet. Suddenly she stopped short, her blue eyes widening behind the hood as a trickle of sand sprayed out from under her feet.

Standing in front of her was a girl about her height with a cascade of brown sausage girls. A small green bow was perched atop her head, as if holding it in place. " Wendy!" Alice gasped.

"Alice?" Wendy's soft voice chimed. The startled expression on her face changed to glee as she realized that it really _was _her long-lost friend.

Alice adjusted her hood slightly so that Wendy could see her face. It was quite a pretty face, at that. Alice had a delicate frame and enormous, teal eyes framed with dark lashes. They sparkled as she greeted her friend with a an excited," Hello, Wendy!"

"Oh, Alice! I just _knew _you'd come!" Wendy exclaimed, pulling her friend into a quick, warm embrace. She prattled on, "You see, I'm having a horrid time since mother sent me to America! I mean, I have to clean all day for Aunt Marjorie, but somehow I didn't even know that we were even in the same neighborhood until just yesterday, when you called me! Oh, Alice, who knew that we'd end up on the very same street? Say, are you zoned for-"

"PDA?" Alice asked, resorting to the common abbreviation for Pixie Dust Academy. "Why of f course I am, silly, I'm only a bit down the road! I've missed you too!"

"So, what's been going on?" Wendy asked, pulling her friend down with a thump onto an ornate wrought-iron bench perched on the the edge of the sand. "I heard that the new boy, Hans, lives down the street from you. He seems kinda cute."

"Hmm, I guess." Alice said indifferently, her nose slightly upturned in the way that it was when she felt disdain. "He gives me the creeps. I've heard that he's very cunning, and lies quite convincingly. Apparently, he might be a prince." She shuddered. "But he has the most sinister, snakelike smile when you catch him at it."

There was a pause as the girls watched the soft rippling of the waves against the sand and gulls wheeling high overhead. Alice took a glance up at the sky and bit her lip in concern. "C'mon Wen, let's go a little down the beach so that we're closer to my house. It looks like it's going to storm, and that way if we're caught in it we won't have very far to walk."

Wendy nodded, her sky blue eyes blinking rapidly as if she were refocusing out of whatever daydream she'd been in. Readjusting the bow perched atop her clutch of light brown ringlets, she linked arms with her best friend and off they strolled along the beach.

"So." Wendy said quietly,"School starts tomorrow, and I was thinking…"

"Yes?"

"I was thinking that we could join the popular clique this year."

"Ugh. Those phonies?" Alice wrinkled her nose in disgust. "All they care about is looking good, seeming superior, and making witty remarks."

"Well, yeah," Wendy admitted," but they get an easier time of it then everyone else does, you know. Don't you want that?"

"Yes... no... I don't know." Alice sighed, smoothing her plaid skirt and plopping down on the sandbar. Her bare feet just grazed the edge of the water. "I wish that we could all get along. We certainly aren't right now, and you know that."

Wendy and Alice both came from rather poor families, so they weren't rich or pampered enough to be considered 'popular'. Besides, being popular meant that you had a built-in sneer and a bunch of fake friends, and neither girl wanted any of that.

"At everyone else is... pleasant..." Wendy's voice faded away as the sea lapped into the shore, carrying jagged fragments of shells and shards of glass with it.

"Anyways, I heard that cliques don't exist at this school, exactly." Alice said, breaking the heavy silence. "It's more of… um… groups?"

"It sounds the same to me." Wendy dipped her toes in the water.

"Yeah, but-" Alice began to reply, but her train of thought was cut off by a sudden, horrible feeling. As her eyes looked down at her feet, now up to the ankles in water, she froze. Alice slowly bent over to study the chilly, crystal-blue water. It seemed to be rippling higher and higher over her ankles! Alice's eyes widened and her head jerked upward as if she had been slapped in the face.

"Oh no. Oh no... Wendy, the water wasn't this high a moment ago! It only touched the tips of my toes!" she exclaimed, her voice shrill with panic. "We have to get up! Wendy, get up!"

Wendy quickly scampered to her feet and let out a gasp as she saw what Alice had just noticed. The water was swirling in a vicious circular vortex, making tiny circular imprints on the damp sand.

"Come on, Wen, we _have _to get out of here!" Alice cried urgently, her eyes flashing as she saw the huge torrent of water that was quickly sweeping in towards the beach. "RUN!" she exclaimed, terrified. Alice shoved Wendy back, further up the shore, just as it swept over her head.

Wendy, drenched in briny saltwater up to her waist but otherwise unharmed, vigorously rubbed specks of sand out of her stinging eyes. She ran as quickly as her burning legs would take her up the beach to safety, gasping for breath.

"Alice!" she called tremulously into the ocean, cupping her hands around her mouth. After a moment of horrible silence, Wendy clambered up and onto a massive sheet of stone high above the rapidly rising water. "ALICE!" There was no response.

Heart pounding, Wendy peered over the rock at the violently crashing waves below. The water couldn't be _that _bad... could it? She steeled herself, knowing that whatever she was going through, for Alice it must be a hundred times worse.

Wendy leapt, boosting herself off of the rock in one fluid motion. Her blue dress billowed in the wind and her black scarf fluttered around her neck like a small silk raven spreading its wings. Just in the nick of time, her fingers latched onto the very bottom of the shelf of rock as she fell. Without looking up, Wendy knew that it was far, far below where she had been sitting before.

Since she was already drenched in water, Wendy decided that she might as well lower herself as far into the ocean as she could without being swept away. Shivering violently, she gingerly sank further into the waves, submerging herself like a small submarine in the frigid water. The brunette gritted her teeth at the unwelcoming icy cold shock that suddenly flooded her.

Waving her feet around underwater, Wendy called at the top of her lungs," ALICE! ALICE, WHERE ARE YOU?!" She hoped that her friend would somehow see her foot and grab hold.

After a moment of groping about in the swirling water and having no luck, Wendy decided that she was going to have to climb back to the top of the rock or else be swept away. Sucking in her breath, she grabbed onto a ledge that was a little higher up and braced her feet on a chink in the wall, gritting her teeth as she strained to pull herself up. Hanging perilously over the gushing water, Wendy bit her lip, pulling herself up bit inch by agonizing inch.

Finally she reached the top of the rock, which she fell onto with a breathless sigh. After a moment of lying there, her muscles burning, Wendy sat up and fluffed her dripping hair as she crawled on her hands and knees into the gap in the rock and onto the beach. She plopped down into the squishy sand, which was formerly sun-baked but had become damp and mushy.

Staring out into the sea, Wendy waited a few moments, curls blowing in the wind. A solitary tear slid down her cheek as she paused to mourn her best friend before standing up, gloomily brushing a coat of sand from her dress, and hurrying home to make sure that John and Michael were alright.

Though it was unbeknownst to Wendy, Alice was several feet away, kicking her legs and thrashing about against the strong current. She was an excellent swimmer but the water kept flowing, gushing over her head in thick sheets and cutting off her oxygen. Before she plunged under again Alice sucked in a deep breath of the cool, salty air, gasping.

As she was about to be towed back underwater by the current, Alice spotted an enormous, foam-capped wave rolling towards her. She clapped her hands over her mouth to prevent a startled gasp from escaping as she dove deep underwater and anchored her feet to the thick, soupy carpet of sediments coating the ocean's bottom.

_WHAM! _The waves collided with her small figure and sent her tumbling head over heels deeper into the water, pressing her unceremoniously against the sand. Alice clutched around in the murk for some sort of rock or something that she could grab onto, but her hand was only met with water.

_BAM! _Another powerful sheet of water gushed inland, tossing Alice into the strong current, which was fast becoming a riptide. It sucked in a stream of water that was thick with sand, cracked, jagged-edged shells, heaps of litter…and one pretty blonde girl, now very unconscious.


	2. The Little Mermaids

Ariel wound a strand of silky red hair around one slender finger, reclining sleepily against the soupy ocean floor. Minnows skittered back and forth before her in a shimmering display that shone silver in sharp contrast to the gentle, steady blue of the water. She was growing very groggy after waiting so long for one of her sisters to appear and exclaim," Found you, slow-fins!" But so far, none of her annoying, yet endearing sisters had made an appearance.

"Hey! Ari!"

Ariel's head jerked up and her ginger hair floated around her face in a soft halo. "Aquata? That you?"

"Yeah, kelp brain. Who else?" the brunette giggled, flipping in a quick circle. Her deep blue tail left a sheet of miniature bubbles in its wake as she zipped around the narrow crawlspace, her brow furrowing more and more as she took in their surroundings.

"Yeesh, Ariel. This isn't a very nice place to hide," she said, wrinkling her nose and pointing a finger at the sea of slimy, beige kelp rippling in the strong ocean current.

"Well that's the point, isn't it?" Ariel said loftily, flipping her jade-colored tail to float up and join her sister. "So, how'd you find me?"

"Well, at one point, I heard the sound of snoring. That's sort of a tell-tale, isn't it?" Aquata snorted.

"Well, at least I don't need a stuffed teddy bear to fall asleep." Ariel retorted playfully, giving her sister a light shove.

"Hey! Mr. Fuzzifinkle isn't just any teddy bear!" Aquata protested empathetically, shoving Ariel back.

"Okay, okay." Ariel relented, lying flat on her back in the water and crossing her arms. The tips of her hair rippled slightly in the ocean breeze.

"Hey, what's that?" Aquata asked, breaking the peaceful silence. She glided towards the surface, where a dark object was floating limply along. "Ariel!" her voice rose a few octaves. "Come _here_!"

"What is it?" Ariel asked in concern, quickly swimming to her sister's side. "Oh!" she gasped. "It's a human girl!"

"What could she be doing out here?" Aquata asked nervously. "I mean, humans don't just randomly end up in the middle of the ocean!"

"Maybe the storm brought her in..." Ariel mused, studying the stranger. The girl looked to be Ariel's age and height, and her damp blonde hair floated in a halo around her face. Her eyes were sealed shut and her hands were clasped together, resting against her chest.

"Is she...?" Ariel choked out. She couldn't bear to finish her sentence.

"Is don't know." Aquata replied quietly, biting her lip. "But I think we'd better step in.." After a moment of hesitation Aquata burst through the surface, spraying water over the limp girl. "Oops." she said meekly, putting a hand to her lips, then casting a worried look at Ariel. "I think I splashed her. C'mere, Ari."

Without the slightest hesitation Ariel also broke the surface, but she was more careful not to splash. She glided over to the blonde girl and tapped her forehead, once.

Not the slightest movement.

"I think that I know what would work..." Aquata murmured. She scooped up a handful of chilly water, careful not to let it trickle through her fingers, and poured it carefully over the girl's forehead.

Alice shuddered slightly, drifting into consciousness. The last thing that she could remember was being jerked about like a rag doll, then knocking her head on a very sharp rock sticking out of the ground.

She blinked her salt-encrusted eyes open and let out a gasp, loosing her serene floating position in the scramble to tread water next to the two mermaids and take in her strange new surroundings.

"Hi!" Ariel chirped, waving a delicate hand at Alice. Her voice was bubbly, yet the concern in her tone was hard to miss. "We were worried you wouldn't wake up. You have quite a bruise, there." The ginger pointed a slender finger to the tender purple blemish on Alice's arm.

Alice winced as her eyes flitted down to her arm. She paused, then asked haltingly," Where-where am I?"

"You're in Atlantica!" Aquata said brazenly, throwing her hands up in the air. "Middle of the ocean. There should be a dock somewhere, though. Ari and I can get you there."

"You're name is Ari?" Alice asked the younger mer-girl.

"Ari-el." She corrected, putting extra emphasis on the _el_. "So, did a storm bring you here?"

"Yes. It was horrid." Alice shuddered, her legs limp from treading water. "Why, have many people been washed up here?"

"A few." Ariel said, a dreamy look coming onto her face. It was unlike anything that Alice had ever seen before; a mixture of affection and sadness. She recognized that look; it was in the way that Wendy gazed adoringly at her boyfriend Phillip, who they had left in England.

_Love._

"Snap out of it, Ari." Aquata gently shook her sister's shoulder, her chocolate-brown eyes sad. She turned to Alice and whispered, "A year ago a man- a dark-haired sailor- fell off of his ship, and Ariel rescued him. She fell hopelessly in love with him, but she's half-mermaid and he's… not. It could never work," she finished helplessly.

"Ari-el." Alice said, playfully exaggerating the way that she had pronounced it. She tugged on a strand of her new friend's ginger hair. "Wake up."

"Huh?!" the mer-girl said, temporarily disoriented. "Oh, right. We have to get you to the docks. C'mon, Aquata, let's go."

The two sisters linked hands and dove under, leaving Alice alone and shivering in the water. She wanted to dive under and look for them, but she was afraid that if she moved she would lose them altogether. A moment later, the two mermaids re-emerged, this time with a brunette wearing an elegant crown made of shells and a raven-haired mer-girl with a smaller, violet-colored crown.

"Alice, Attina." Ariel said with an eager grin. The brunette with the crown gave a regal wave and a brilliant smile, and Alice found herself smiling back.

"And this is Alana."

The dark-haired mermaid also smiled demurely at Alice and finished combing out her already-flawless hair with her fingertips, then all four sisters linked arms, circling Alice.

"This may seem a bit weird," Ariel precautioned," but just lie on your back and let the water carry you." The sisters each took a deep breath and plunged under in perfect synchronization.

A moment later, Alice felt herself become engulfed by a frothing sheet of water as she suddenly shot forward. The little mermaids were moving it with their powerful tails as they swam far below her in perfect harmony.

Eventually the sheet of water that was supporting Alice stilled and she felt the sister surface next to her. She caught clutches of their chatter.

"You're such a kelp brain, Aquata," a voice whined.

"Yeah, you kept kicking me!"

"C'mon, guys, cut her some slack! We haven't done this in a while."

"Oh be quiet, Ariel, no one asked you."

"Hey, where's Adella?"

"Probably with… _fish lips Stevie_!" Ariel said gleefully.

"Ew!" the other three chorused.

Alice let out a small cough to alert them that she was still here. "So, is this the dock?"

"Yep!" replied Ariel. "Just ask for a cab back to wherever you came from and…" Suddenly, her dazzling teal eyes widened as they fixed on something... or _someone... _walking along the dock_._

"Ariel…?" Attina asked, putting a concerned hand on her sister's arm.

"Oh my gosh." She breathed. "It's _him_!"


	3. The Boy in the Window

"Hey, mopey-pants, wake up!" Flynn snapped, waving a hand in front of Eric's drowsy face. "We have some work to do!"

"What?!" Eric snapped to attention, his ice-blue eyes still sparkling with the haze of his daydream. "Oh, we still have work left? Bummer. I was going to go sailing after this."

"Well, we'd all rather be anywhere but here." grumbled Flynn sardonically, hoisting a coil of thick, coarse rope onto his shoulder and tossing it to Eric, who expertly caught it and flung it into the supply barrel as if it were a feather pillow.

"So, how have things been working at the _Snuggly Duckling_?" Eric teased lightly, casting a quick, furtive glance at the harbor to look for Ariel. He could picture her vibrant red-gold hair blowing in the breeze and her large blue eyes scanning the docks for his. It had been months since he'd last seen her, yet Eric just couldn't stop searching for her.

"Oh, just peachy." Flynn replied, plastering a grin onto his face which quickly slackened into a weary yawn. "Yeesh, Gaston wasn't joking when he said that we had a lot of work to do."

"No one jokes like Gaston!" snorted Eric, and was rewarded with a hard coil of rope to the head by Flynn. He doubled over at Eric's stunned expression, clasping his side.

"Dude," he wheezed between fits of laughter," you should see your face right now. You look ri-"

An oar that Eric had tossed offhandedly smacked Flynn squarely in the face. "-diculous." he choked out, collapsing onto the slimy, corroded planks of the dock. "Hey!" he exclaimed empathetically, rubbing his sore head.

"Well, at least I don't look as ridiculous as you!" Eric said brightly as Flynn struggled to his feet.

"Hey, what were you looking for down there in the water?" asked a dazed Flynn, crossing his arms and leaning against the massive barrel of oars for support.

"Oh, just zoning, I guess." Eric said vaguely, heaving another set of waterstained oars onto his shoulders and setting them carefully into a small rowboat lying at his feet.

"'Zoning', huh?" Flynn said dubiously. "Well, whatever."

"Who is _him_?" Alice queried, peeking over the dock. There was no response, only the soft lapping of the waves.

The three other Triton daughters, all submerged in the water up to their necks, watched Ariel press a delicate ear to the far side of the dock, her hair rippling in the gentle tide.

"Ari-" Aquata started, but Attina hushed her with one firm look.

"It's Eric." Ariel said after a moment of concentration, her dazzling blue eyes misting with sadness. She turned to face her sisters. "He's here. He still cares, he's still looking for me!"

The sisters all exchanged worried glances as Ariel repeated to herself in a quieter tone," He's still looking for me."

"Ariel." Aquata said, clutching her hands into agitated fists. "He's human. You're part mermaid."

Ariel slowly extended a slender hand towards the dock where Eric and his friend were working, her perfectly manicured sea green fingernails mirroring the rippling pattern of the water.

She looked down at her hand. It painted with human polish, yet somehow it was still the embodiment of the sea.

Ariel knew what she had to do.

"I'm sorry, guys." Ariel said decidedly," But I have to go see Eric."

She turned to face her sisters, arms crossed over her chest. "Don't you see? I can't live like this anymore!"

"I'm coming with her." Alice said firmly. "She'll get lost in the human world without a guide." She turned to Ariel and asked," Have you ever been on land before?"

"Yes, for a short time." Ariel said softly, remembering. "But I've seen so little of the world. I _need _to see more of it before I turn sixteen."

"What happens when you turn sixteen?" Alice asked, an anxious edge creeping into her voice at the shadow of foreboding accompanying Ariel's words.

"When I turn sixteen, I have to decide to be either permanently mermaid, or permanently human," replied Ariel helplessly. "Father would never, ever let me be a human. _Ever_."

"Good luck." Attina cut in softly. Though her words were gentle, the mer-girl's voice still managed to resound with authority.

"Text us with your shell-phone. We'll tell father that you went to visit a human friend." Added Alana, her eyes glimmering mischievously.

"Gotcha." Ariel whispered, grasping the edge of the dock with her hands and boosting herself up an inch or so. "Bye, girls. Wish me luck!" With that, the mermaid disappeared over the side of the dock. Taking a deep breath, Alice following nervously in her wake.

_FOOMMMMM! _The moment her tail left the water, it began to shimmer faintly. The light grew stronger and stronger, until suddenly Ariel's tail transformed into a glimmering pea-green skirt in a quick burst of blue foam and glitter. The top of her ornate dress had a neckline trimmed with glimmering silver shells. As she followed behind Ariel, Alice felt very plain in her dripping outfit.

"Not this thing again!" Ariel moaned. "It happens every time I transform." She looked at Alice helplessly.

"It's okay. It's beautiful. Really." Alice said earnestly, sensing the mix of nerves and excitement inside of Ariel's voice.

"Thank you." Replied the mer-girl as she began striding along the dock. Every head turned. Every jaw dropped.

"Look, mommy, those girls are beautiful!" one little boy with golden hair whispered. He was clutching a teddy bear in one hand.

"They are." Replied his mother, Ms. Darling, in a warm voice. "Oh, why I think that the blonde is Alice!" She tilted her head in confusion. "I wonder why she's so drenched?"

"Ari, people are staring." Alice whispered out of the corner of her mouth, trying to keep away from the clump of villagers who were pointing and whispering in hushed voices about them.

"I know." Ariel was used to being stared at, being the beauty that she was. "You look pretty amazing, Alice."

"So do you." Alice replied, then quickly glanced down at herself. "But I'm terribly wet!"

"It's a good look." Ariel said with a wink, her stride quickening. "And I would know. Us mermaids are wet 24/7."

Suddenly she halted, a foot or so from Eric. Ariel watched him heft a bundle of oars into the barrel, his blue eyes twinkling, and suddenly felt nauseous. She backed slowly away, her green dress trailing over the dock.

Alice watched her cautiously, and after a moment she followed.

"What was that all about?" queried the blonde, ushering her friend to a wooden bench that was skirting the dock. "I thought that… well… you were going to say hello."

"I _was_." Ariel said faintly. "But I'm just not ready yet. This isn't the time, I know it." She reclined back against the bench, folded her arms under her head, and closed her eyes.

The air smelled of sweet brine, just like the ocean. Just like her home.

Alice watched Ariel for a moment, then sniffed in the ocean-sweet air herself. It tasted like pickles and salty things to her; rare treats that she got on the occasion at the farmer's market. It smelled like exploration, exciting new things.

She took another sniff, tasting a hint of something metallic in it this time that was sharp on her tongue.

Alice tasted danger on the horizon.

She tried to force it from her mind, but she knew danger all too well. She had gotten the same sensation the moment before her head collided with the rock.

"So, um, Ariel... do you want to find some dry clothes and pick up something to eat?" Alice offered after a moment. "Oh, and I'd better call my parents."

She quickly rifled through her pockets, biting her lip nervously.

After a moment, Alice exclaimed agitatedly," Darn! I don't have my phone with me! I must have left it at home."

"Oh, you can use my shell-phone!" Ariel offered to her friend, holding out the compact, cream-colored mobile device. Alice gratefully took it and punched in her house number as Ariel chattered on and on about the best places to shop for dresses and get fruit smoothies.

"_BRIIIING! BRIIIING!_"

After a long pause, Alice's mother picked up.

"H-hello?" the worry and sadness in Mrs. Liddel's voice was tangible.

"Hi, mom. It's me, Alice. I got swept away in the water and washed up on the docks alongside a town."

"Oh, Alice! I'm _so glad _that you're alright!" her mother gushed, the weight of her voice immediately lessening. "Are you injured at all?"

"I bumped my head on a rock, but now I'm fine." Alice replied carefully, not wanting to mention that she had been knocked out for the sake of not worrying her mother. "And I'm with a friend. Is it okay if I come home tomorrow?"

"Yes, but be sure to get back in time for school!" Mrs. Liddel said cheerfully. "Wendy's fine. I'll let her know that you are too. Oh, well I'd better go dear- the scones are about to burn."

"Bye, mom."

"Be safe!"

_Click! _The phone turned off.

"Well, are you ready to go on a major shopping spree?" Ariel squealed, her eyes twinkling. "We can buy dresses, and bows, and pastries… Ooh, I can't wait!" She tugged Alice to her feet. "C'mon, let's go!"

Alice, swept up for a moment in Ariel's fantasy of shopping, paused. "Oh, look! There's a boy's boarding school, right there. One of the orphans is at the window. I think he's looking at us." She squinted, leaning forward. Her expression softened as she whispered in a dreamy manner, "He has awfully nice eyes." She gave a small wave and a smile, but the boy had vanished.

Ariel crooned," Ohhhh, you _like him_!"

"Of course not! I didn't say that!" Alice gave Ariel a playful shove. "So, what were you saying about shopping…?" She turned away from the window but her mind was still back there, with the boy.


End file.
